Described by the New York Times as a film with "the precise and harrowing balance of romantic beauty and profound terror," Andrzej Munk's Passenger is considered to be a classic of Polish cinema and is one of the most audacious films made about the Holocaust. Munk, who died while filming Passenger at the age of 39, based his film on the same source that Mieczyslaw Weinberg used for his opera, The Passenger. 

Munk's film was completed by his close friend, Polish film director and screen writer, Witold Lesiewicz. Upon its release, the film won main awards at the Cannes and Venice film festivals.